


Papa Aang

by Creativity_In_Little_Time



Series: Making A Family [6]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Kya finally talks to Aang about her childhood, Papa Aang, Personal Growth, Talking, Toddlers, airbending tricks, making amends soft of?, something that's been on her chest for a while, the twins love when aang airlifts them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 09:39:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19206766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Creativity_In_Little_Time/pseuds/Creativity_In_Little_Time
Summary: For the longest time, Kya didn't want Aang in her kids' life until she realized that she didn't have a problem with him spending time with them, but rather she had a problem about her childhood.





	Papa Aang

Kya was always amazed at how quickly the twins knew when her dad was there to visit. She had long ago stop announcing his presence since they were already rushing to jump on him.

“Papa Aang do the thing! Do the thing!”

They would chant tugging at his robes. And “ _the thing”_ could be anything from airlifting them or his air-rock-swirl, as long as he did _anything_ they were happy.

Kya had, at first, been worried about letting her dad into their lives. He was the Avatar after all, and he couldn’t visit as often as her mom could.

“You can’t shut him out because of that,” Su said. “I think the Twins should know their grandfather.”

Still, Aang didn’t see his grandkids until they were two. He won them over immediately with airbending, storytelling, and Appa and Momo. Even with the kids complete in love with Aang, and Su trusting him, Kya still couldn’t get on board.

“You should talk to him,” Su said.

The twins were already between them and asleep, Su reached over them to push Kya’s hair out of her face.

“I don’t know. . .”

“You should,” Su insisted. “For the twins.”

Instinctively, Kya looked down at the sleeping toddlers. Kel had a new stuff animal, polar dog, that he kept with him wherever he went, snuggle against his chest while Jaya had an arm thrown around him. They seemed to adore their grandfather and her dad  _was_ making an effort.

“Okay,” Kya whispered. “I will.”

That was a month ago and as she watched her kids squeal and float, nostalgia hit her. It was a distant memory, shroud with childlike glee. The memory left a lump in her throat and she look away to take a deep breath.

“Dad, we need to talk.”

The words caused Aang to lower the twins on the ground. He looked at her, a glint of mischief in his eyes, that died when he saw how serious she was. He stood up and placed his hands on top of the twins’ heads.

“Why don’t you the two play on Appa while I talk to you, Momma?”

“Appa!”

They ran to the large mammal. Giggling as they climbed up on it. Aang stared at them for a moment, a smile on his face that dropped as he turned to look at Kya. She felt her heart leap in her throat as she led him to sit on a bench.

Kya didn’t know how to come about this, to bring up her bittersweet childhood for the sake of her kids, for the sake of herself. Especially since her childhood wasn’t _bad_ , especially when Aang did try.

“Dad, you can’t treat them how you treated me and Bumi.”

The words fell out of her mouth before Kya could think about what to say. While saying this was a relief, she still felt awful for blurting it out.

“What do you mean?”

The genuine confusion on Aang’s face made Kya snort. Of course, what could she be talking about?

“When it became clear that Tenzin was an Airbender, we felt tossed aside.” Kya sighed. “You spent more time with him than with us. We understood why, honestly, you were the last Airbender for so long. And now that he was here you wanted to teach him everything.”

She looked away from him, and instead stared at the twins as the slide down Appa’s back, only to climb back up. Her clenched at the sight, how happy they were and she couldn’t help but imagine their faces, hurt and heartbroken if Aang ignored them for something else.

“I don’t want the same thing to happen with them,” Kya said. “Dad, they adore you and I don’t want you to break their hearts.”

She looked down at her hands as she rubbed her legs.

“Kya, I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” Aang said, softly.

He placed a hand on her shoulder and lowered it to rub her back.

“We weren’t exactly verbal about it,” Kya admitted. “Whether because we were too jealous to or we didn’t want to ruin what you had.”

“I should’ve noticed,” Aang said. “You’re right, I was making sure that all the airbending traditions and culture got passed down that-”

“We would’ve been happy to learn them,” Kya cut in.

“You two never seemed interested,” Aang sighed. “And I didn’t want to force you to learn them. I’ve seen what forcing people to do something they don’t want to do, the effect that it has. And I also know that not being invested in a child’s life could do.”

He had to be referring to Toph’s relationship with her wife and Lin. Even now, Toph was somewhere, Lin not ready to talk, and Su pretending that it was normal. Kya could never get even a word or two out of Su about her relationship with her mother, only that they talked it out and even with that Kya doubt that it happened. Their relationship with their mother was one of the reasons why Kya never brought this conversation up, at least Bumi and her relationship with Aang wasn’t that bad. While they felt excluded from learning about airbending culture, he was still in their lives. Taking them to places and things.

“It really came down to us asking, if it really bothered us that you were teaching him but not us,” Kya said.

“Still. . .”

“Dad, we were all at fault about this,” Kya cut in. “I just. . .I don’t want you or me for that matter, to make that same mistake twice.”

Aang nodded and Kya knew that he understood.

“Momma!” Jaya called.

Kya and Aang turned their heads to see that Jaya was sitting on top of Appa’s head while Kel rolled around in the saddle.

“Stop hogging Papa Aang!”

Kya’s eyes widen as she burst into laughter.


End file.
